Last week, Graves Garrett Greim partner Eddie Greim presented oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court. Greim defended his team’s trial win before a three-judge district court in Louisiana, which had found that Louisiana discriminated against voters by drawing a bizarrely shaped racial gerrymander within its congressional district map.

Potentially hanging in the balance is Republican control of the United States House of Representatives.

Greim argued for the appellees, Philip Callais and other Louisiana voters, that the state’s congressional gerrymander violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as well as the Fifteenth Amendment. On appeal, the state of Louisiana and a group of voters represented by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund responded that Louisiana’s map was driven by politics rather than race and was compelled by an earlier district court decision that had required the drawing of another black-majority district under the Voting Rights Act. Greim countered that an unlawful racial “seat” quota caused Louisiana to sacrifice one Republican congressional seat, and that the Voting Rights Act could never require drawing a district that several justices likened to a “snake.”

All nine justices energetically peppered counsel with questions before a packed courtroom, while demonstrations swirled outside at the foot of the courthouse steps.

The trial and appellate team included redistricting litigator Paul Hurd of Monroe, Louisiana, and Graves Garrett Greim associate Katie Mitra. The consolidated cases are Louisiana v. Callais et al., and Robinson et al. v. Callais et al. Oral arguments can be found here.

Greim maintains an influential and respected national practice in free speech and election law. His prior experience includes numerous constitutional challenges to election and campaign finance laws, representation of clients in state and federal ethics and campaign finance enforcement actions and investigations, initiative petition drafting and litigation, and advice on campaign and election law compliance.